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Lot Essay
The use of lacquer on porcelain has been much admired, but is very rare since the application of the lacquer to the surface of the porcelain requires great skill and would have added considerably to the original cost of the item so adorned. It is also rather fragile, and it is likely that of the few examples of this type made, even fewer have survived into the present day.
Adding to the rarity of the object, and the difficulty of production, is the fact that tiny pieces of mother-of-pearl have been inlaid into the lacquer to form a landscape design. As early as the Bronze Age lacquer was used not only to give a glossy and protective covering to carved wood, but was also used to allow specially-shaped pieces of shell and bone to be inlaid into the design. The remains of this type of inlay have been excavated at the royal Shang dynasty tombs at Xibeigang, Anyang, dating to the 12th-11th century BC; see Sir Harry Garner, Chinese Lacquer, London, 1979, pls. 2-4. In the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) so-called luotian lacquer with mother-of-pearl inlay was particularly associated with luxury items such as mirrors, sutra boxes, and musical instruments. The mother-of-pearl used for Tang dynasty lacquer wares comes from the shell of the marine gastropods turbo cornutus (commonly known as horned turban) or turbo marmoratus (commonly known as marbled turban), and the pieces tended to be relatively thick and white.
At some time during the Song dynasty a new style of mother-of-pearl inlay was adopted, which moved away from the use of large, thick, white, pieces of shell and employed tiny, thin pieces of multi-colored shell to build up detailed designs. This shell came from the inner layer of the haliotis (abalone) shell and is thinner and more iridescently colorful than the Tang mother-of-pearl. The technique employing this more delicate style of inlay is usually referred to in the West as lacque burgauté. Very little excavated evidence has survived from the Song/Jin dynasties. The technique was well established by the Yuan dynasty, and it was this type of fine mother-of-pearl inlay that remained the most admired by connoisseurs of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Such inlaid lacquer was usually applied to a base made of wood, or other organic material. Nevertheless, as early as the Tang dynasty, lacquer was very occasionally applied to valuable ceramics.
It was under the aegis of the Kangxi emperor (1662-1722) that there was renewed interest in the lacquering of porcelain. However, only a very small number of Kangxi porcelain vessels decorated with lacquer have survived. One of these, a small jar decorated with mother-of-pearl applied to lacquer in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague is illustrated by M. Beurdeley and G. Raindre in Qing Porcelain: Famille verte, Famille rose, London, 1987, p. 65, no. 67, where the authors note that, "This is a piece of great rarity". Compare the current vase with a pair of baluster vases from the Collections of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, Inv.GR580A and B, illustrated in B. Quette, De la Chine aux Arts Décoratifs, 13 February 2014 - 29 June 2014, Paris, 2014, pl.76.
From the R.H.Blumenfield Collection, see also a very rare mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquer on porcelain brushpot, dating from Kangxi reign and sold by Christie's New York, 25 March 2010, lot 954.
Adding to the rarity of the object, and the difficulty of production, is the fact that tiny pieces of mother-of-pearl have been inlaid into the lacquer to form a landscape design. As early as the Bronze Age lacquer was used not only to give a glossy and protective covering to carved wood, but was also used to allow specially-shaped pieces of shell and bone to be inlaid into the design. The remains of this type of inlay have been excavated at the royal Shang dynasty tombs at Xibeigang, Anyang, dating to the 12th-11th century BC; see Sir Harry Garner, Chinese Lacquer, London, 1979, pls. 2-4. In the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) so-called luotian lacquer with mother-of-pearl inlay was particularly associated with luxury items such as mirrors, sutra boxes, and musical instruments. The mother-of-pearl used for Tang dynasty lacquer wares comes from the shell of the marine gastropods turbo cornutus (commonly known as horned turban) or turbo marmoratus (commonly known as marbled turban), and the pieces tended to be relatively thick and white.
At some time during the Song dynasty a new style of mother-of-pearl inlay was adopted, which moved away from the use of large, thick, white, pieces of shell and employed tiny, thin pieces of multi-colored shell to build up detailed designs. This shell came from the inner layer of the haliotis (abalone) shell and is thinner and more iridescently colorful than the Tang mother-of-pearl. The technique employing this more delicate style of inlay is usually referred to in the West as lacque burgauté. Very little excavated evidence has survived from the Song/Jin dynasties. The technique was well established by the Yuan dynasty, and it was this type of fine mother-of-pearl inlay that remained the most admired by connoisseurs of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Such inlaid lacquer was usually applied to a base made of wood, or other organic material. Nevertheless, as early as the Tang dynasty, lacquer was very occasionally applied to valuable ceramics.
It was under the aegis of the Kangxi emperor (1662-1722) that there was renewed interest in the lacquering of porcelain. However, only a very small number of Kangxi porcelain vessels decorated with lacquer have survived. One of these, a small jar decorated with mother-of-pearl applied to lacquer in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague is illustrated by M. Beurdeley and G. Raindre in Qing Porcelain: Famille verte, Famille rose, London, 1987, p. 65, no. 67, where the authors note that, "This is a piece of great rarity". Compare the current vase with a pair of baluster vases from the Collections of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, Inv.GR580A and B, illustrated in B. Quette, De la Chine aux Arts Décoratifs, 13 February 2014 - 29 June 2014, Paris, 2014, pl.76.
From the R.H.Blumenfield Collection, see also a very rare mother-of-pearl inlaid lacquer on porcelain brushpot, dating from Kangxi reign and sold by Christie's New York, 25 March 2010, lot 954.